A weakened Hurricane Maria swept in from the Atlantic and hit northern Europe in the wee hours of Wednesday, leaving one person dead in Norway after heavy rains there triggered a landslide.
The body of a 51-year-old woman was found Wednesday morning in the ruins of her house which had been caught up in the landslide in the western Norwegian town of Bergen after torrential rains, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported.
Several other homes were destroyed and nine people were hospitalized, two with serious injuries.
Some 150 millimeters (nearly six inches) of rain fell in the area in just 24 hours, and parts of Norway’s second largest city were flooded, according to local authorities.
Maria hit the western shores of Scandinavia with south-southwestern winds blowing at an average speed of between 75 and 90 kilometers (47 to 56 miles) per hour.
“The hurricane didn’t touch the American coasts and has therefore maintained a large portion of its energy as it crossed the Atlantic,” the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute stated in a public advisory on its website.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) also issued a storm warning for the northern part of the Baltic Sea, and passenger ferries between Helsinki and Estonia were docked to avoid the high seas.
The hurricane was expected to sweep over the south and southeast of Finland Wednesday evening, and FMI warned that it could also wreak havoc inland.
